Well, after owning the shotgun for almost three months, I finally made the time today to get it out to the range to function check it a begin the break-in period. I didn't do any more than put a box of 1 1/4oz #8 heavy target shells and five 3" Mag Hevi-shot 2oz turkey loads into the dirt (didn't have time to pattern it, and I couldn't get to the trap club).
To sum up the experience in three words...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM!
It was dead reliable, cycling and ejecting the shells flawlessly. I do see why they talk about a break-in period, because the first 10 shells or so I could distinctly hear and feel the action cycling, like a very fast pump gun. After about 10 shells, the action got noticably faster and smoother, and the cycling was virtually imperceptable and much faster than I would have thought from an inertia driven action. Spent shells are ejected with authority, with there being a noticeable difference with the much more powerful 3" turkey shells. The 2 3/4", 1-1/4oz max dram eq. shells landed about 5-6 feet directly to my right, while the 3" Mags flew over 8 feet before they were stopped by tall brush, but I have no doubt that they'd have gone at least 10 feet if on bare ground. I've never seen a shotgun throw hulls like that, but I doubt it'd have and problem tossing them out when wet and cold, I just feel sorry for the guy standing to my right in a duck blind!
As far as recoil goes, I'd say that it's the same as a similar weight pump shotgun, and the Stoeger is a fairly light shotgun, much lighter than my BPS was and about the same weight at a Remington 870. I don't think that the inertia action does much for felt recoil like a gas operated system, because the full recoil pulse in basically over before the action starts to move, which is what makes the inertia system work, compared to the gas gun that starts cycling before the shot column is out of the barrel. This is why I was surprised at how fast the action cycles, because it's at least as fast as any gas operated shotgun I've ever shot, which tells me that while it starts cycling later than a gas gun, the bolt moves faster once it gets going. The nice thing about this is that all the gas, and therefore all the carbon fouling, it out of the muzzle long before the action unlocks. This was evidenced by the fact that after 30 shells there was NO perceptable fouling beyond the locking lug recesses at the breach of the barrel. Not a single speck of fouling entered the action whatsoever, which I've never even seen in a pump gun. This tells me that the action was locked tight until well after the gasses escaped the muzzle. This reassures me that it'll be reliable in wet and cold weather when any fouling in the action would turn to sludge.
Overall, my impression is that it's one heck of a shotgun for under $400, and semi-auto to boot. I'd recommend it to anyone that wants a great value semi-auto shotgun that doesn't need or want to shoot shells over 3".
Mike
Stoeger 2000 range report...
